As most of us know by now, "Ransomware" is one of the newer trends in malicious software. Instead of damaging system files and destroying data, they lock systems down as a means of extorting money out of people or businesses. One outbreak from last year proved to be especially damaging to hospitals in the UK. This latest attack, however, isn't all that nefarious. They don't want money. They just want folks to play some Playerunknown's Battlegrounds for an hour. While the ransomware appears to be a joke, it is very real; it was discovered by Malware Hunter Team.

It has been confirmed that the malware does, in fact, lockdown an infected computer's files, but it's fairly easy to get around. It only encrypts users' desktop files (by appending the .PUBG extension to them) and once it finishes, it displays a screen providing two methods to decrypt your files. The screen states:

Quote:

PUBG Ransomware
Your files, images, musics, documents are Encrypted!

Your files is encrypted by PUBG Ransomware!
but don't worry! It is not hard to unlock it.
I don't want money!
Just play PUBG 1Hours!

Or Restore is [ s2acxx56a2sae5fjh5k2gb5s2e ]

You can either enter the provided restore code or launch PUBG; fortunately, everything unlocked after only a few minutes (if not seconds) of playing PUBG, not the stated hour. Right now, it seems like it's just a joke...but, it's also unknown whether or not there is anything significantly more malicious buried within it that could rear it's ugly head later on down the road.

It would be one thing if they provided an option to just pay the damn ransom and buy your way out of an hour's worth of excruciating dullness. But forcing victims to endure PUBG with no other recourse?

It would be one thing if they provided an option to just pay the damn ransom and buy your way out of an hour's worth of excruciating dullness. But forcing victims to endure PUBG with no other recourse?

That's terror.

You can also just enter the code they give you to get right out of it. Conversely, the ransomware only checks to make sure a process called "TslGame" is running...and it only needs to run for three seconds, not an hour.

The thing with computers, Windows computers, is that nearly EVERYONE runs as a full admin. Create two accounts. One with full admin access, others as standard users. Whenever someone wants to do something UAC (Which you've changed to the highest setting) prompts for the Admin password when YOU need to do something silly.